Sunday, October 9, 2011

a bit of a rave...and a bit of a rant

Last weekend I was feeling a bit under the weather and spent the majority of the weekend propped up in bed reading...turns out I was actually coming down with something...so I stayed in bed on Monday too...during all this bed rest...I read quite a bit...and most importantly i finally read the books my hubby has been recommending...the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I read all 3...and I must say...there is one to rave about...and the other two...well...not so much.

WOW! What a stunning story. A gruesome adventure at that. The story telling is amazing, the characters are fantastic, and I found myself really cheering for the main character Katniss and the main secondary character Peeta. The basic idea of the book is not new...battling to the death in front of a live audience in a demonstration of how inhuman the world has become...but the author does a great job in telling the story, making you feel like you know these characters...that you are one of the people watching it happen. The descriptions are fabulous. I will say this much...the book is recommended for reading levels of age 12 and up...and I definitely DO NOT think this is an appropriate book for age 12...perhaps 14...but that's just my own opinion. I really enjoyed the book and was excited to get to part 2.

Bummer...what a let down from the first book. I actually became quite annoyed with the characters. Katniss became particularly whiny...and Peeta was incredibly irritating. The story has it's moments, and is a tolerable read...but the characters seem to move backwards...as fantastic as they were, as much as you cheered for them...this go round...I was almost cheering against them! I will say there were many times I stopped reading to ponder whether or not these were the same people from the first book! However, as irritating as the characters were, the writing was still quite wonderful, and it was easy to picture many of the scenes. I was not a huge fan of the ending, but the last few chapters were some of the better parts of the book but the ending felt forced and rushed...and then it was on to part 3.

I will be perfectly honest here...this book made me mad! I just can't say that enough. While there are moments of the story that are reminiscent of the great story of the first book...in the end...all they were were just flashes of the original. The writing is still very good, and there are bits and pieces that do make you think and wonder about how it's going to end...once I arrived at the ending...I felt a bit robbed. If this was the ending the author originally intended...then at least make it feel that way...the final chapters again felt forced and rushed as if there was a deadline looming and the words just had to be put on pages. Very disappointed.

Overall:

I did enjoy reading these books...and after the initial investment in the characters, I had to see how it all finished. I was most disappointed because it started out so well...but finished poorly. It's quite funny as my hubby told me that he felt the books got progressively better...but for me, the first book was the only truly good book of the trilogy. To each their own!

Well that's my bit of a rave and a bit of a rant; I may do more of these book reviews as I do spend a great deal of time reading, and I like to share my thoughts on books. Disclaimer: everything mentioned here was my own opinion, not intended to be disparaging in any way towards the author or anyone who has a different opinion of these books.